


Happy New Year, Merlin

by tygermine



Series: Merthur Long Shots [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drunkenness, Humor, M/M, Modern Era, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:01:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22030720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tygermine/pseuds/tygermine
Summary: New Year's Eve was not Merlin's favourite holiday.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Merthur Long Shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630558
Comments: 14
Kudos: 147





	Happy New Year, Merlin

New Year’s Eve was not Merlin’s favourite time of year. 

He hated going out to crowded bars with overpriced drinks that took ages to order. The jostling of people all around him was an irritation and worst was that he never had someone to kiss when the clock struck midnight.

So Merlin decided long ago that he would spend New Year’s Eve at home, like a rational person. His fridge was stocked with beer and he would spend the night watching movies and pass out around ten o’clock. 

“You must come out,” begged Gwaine through the tinny speaker of Merlin’s phone.

“I came out years ago,” Merlin countered, sitting back on his sofa and cracking a beer.

“Oh, ha ha. You think you’re funny.”

“I’m hilarious.”

“Come on Merlin. It’ll be a laugh. We’ll hit up the Crown and Anchor. Nothing fancy. Just the usual crowd, some drinks and maybe you’ll get lucky this year.”

Merlin snorted. “Not bloody likely. Look, Gwaine, thanks, but no thanks. I’m fine here.”

“Drinking alone is a cry for help.”

“Go away. Enjoy your night. Don’t catch anything.”

Merlin hung up and dropped his phone to the side. He pulled up the Big Fat Quiz on iPlayer and settled in to enjoy the chaos on the screen.

Only, he kept looking at his phone. The screen lit up periodically with messages of well wishes from various friends and acquaintances. He ignored them and tried to concentrate on Jimmy Carr being snarky to the contestants. His beer was finished before he realised it and went to retrieve another from the fridge. 

“Happy New Year, Merlin,” he toasted to himself.

* * *

It was just after eleven o’clock when Merlin jerked awake. 

He was sprawled on his sofa, the tv frozen on the menu page for Netflix. Merlin had fallen asleep watching an old detective movie. He moved to stand up when his foot caught on the empty beer cans on the floor, sending them scattering like bowling pins.

“Fuck.”

Merlin’s mouth was dry and his head throbbed. It was too early to have a hangover, so he stumbled to the kitchen to drink his own weight in water. As he stood at the sink, he wondered what had woken him up.

A dull thud came from his front door. 

Moving quietly, Merlin grabbed his taser and edged towards the door.

There was another thud.

He carefully moved closer and flicked up the Yale lock. With shaking hands, he twisted the door handle and pulled it open.

A body fell backwards and sprawled across Merlin’s doorway.

The man lay there, blinking in surprise. “Hello,” he slurred slightly.

“Are you okay?” Merlin asked, standing over the man.

“As good as can be,” the man replied, not bothering to move. “Who are you?”

“Merlin. Why are you lying on my floor?”

“I was sitting just a moment ago.” The man frowned. “Oh well, this is fine too.”

“No. No, it’s not fine. You can’t just lie here in my doorway. You’re letting all the cold air in. You need to move.”

The man tried to roll to his feet with a groan before collapsing back on the floor.

“No, that’s not going to happen.” He smiled up at Merlin. “Just leave me here, old sport.”

Merlin huffed, placed his taser on the side table and grabbed the man’s coat. He pulled him inside until his feet had cleared the doorway, stepped over him to shut the door and then turned to stare at him, arms akimbo.

“Isn’t there someone I can call to come and get you?”

“No,” the dropped his arm over his face. “No one will answer their phones now anyway. They’re all getting ready to snog each other stupid as the fireworks go off.”

“Right, let me call you an Uber or something. Where do you live?”

“I only give my address to someone after a second date.”

“You’re not spending the night on my floor.”

“I’m not bothered. It’s a nice floor. Pretty comfortable, actually. Just leave me here. I plan to fall asleep in the next few seconds anyway.” The man dropped his arm from his face and closed his eyes.

“Oh no. You are not sleeping on my floor.”

“Fine, I’ll take the bed, if you insist.” At this, the man, with great effort only needed when one is truly drunk, pushed himself to his feet. He swayed for a bit before leaning heavily against the wall.

“Do you know how drunk you are?”

The man smiled. “Gatsby drunk.”

“Quite.” Merlin felt himself losing this battle of wits against this drunk man in his entrance hall and decided he’d have to get rid of him as soon as possible. “Look, let’s go sit down. I’ll call a cab or something and then you can go.”

The man shrugged. “Not like I have anywhere to be.”

They stumbled into the living room, the man hanging heavily on Merlin’s shoulder before falling onto the sofa.

“I’m going to make some coffee. Don’t pass out.”

The man merely smiled.

Merlin kept an eye on the stranger sitting in his living room as he put on a pot of coffee. He seemed harmless enough, but Merlin had a cautious streak in him that bordered on paranoia and he didn’t trust this stranger. What if he was just pretending to be drunk and waiting for Merlin to relax before knocking him unconscious and robbing him blind.

Not that there was much for him to steal. Merlin’s tv was old, his laptop was on its last leg and the only thing in his apartment that had any value was the possible five pounds in small change under his sofa cushions.

With two mugs of strong black coffee in his hands, he returned to the living room, placing one cup on the coffee table in front of the man, who was lounging with his head thrown back. 

“Oi,” Merlin poked his arm. “Coffee is in front of you.”

The man blinked and slowly brought his head down. “Thank you,” he said, leaning carefully forward to pick up the mug. He winced with every sip, a frown on his face.

Merlin sipped his own coffee and carefully examined the man. His clothes were quality, from the looks of it. New trainers, expensive jeans, a Burberry jumper and what looked like a Tom Ford wool coat. The man had blond hair, a square jaw and broad shoulders.

Huh, thought Merlin. He’s actually not too bad looking. Pity he was drunk.

It was a while before the man lowered his empty mug and rubbed his eyes. 

“Fuck,” he groaned.

“Hangover kick in already?” Merlin finished his own coffee and took both mugs to the kitchen, returning with two pint glasses full of water. He handed one to the man.

“Yeah. Fuck.” He downed the water and took the second glass from Merlin, downing that too.

“Want to tell me where you live now?”

The man sat back and eyed Merlin. “So eager to be rid of me. No one wants to be alone on New Year’s Eve.”

“I do. I prefer it. If you don’t want to be alone, I hear there’s a party upstairs.”

The man frowned. “Yeah, it’s not that great.”

Ah, so that’s where he came from. 

“Look, I’ll give you one more cup of coffee, but then you have to leave.”

The man fumbled through his coat pockets until he found his phone. He squinted as the screen lit up and he slowly navigated through it, typing with one eye shut as if that could help him focus.

“It’s fine. I’ve ordered a car. Should be here in a few minutes.”

“Oh.” Merlin suddenly found himself speechless. This was what he wanted, wasn’t it? He wanted the drunk man gone. He wanted to go to bed and sleep through the new year and wake up when the world was sane again. Well, as sane as it could get.

“Yes, ‘oh’. I know when I’m not wanted. I knew there and I know here and I will go home where I am wanted.”

“I doubt you’d be invited to a party if they didn’t want you there.”

“It was an obligation invitation. Because God forbid you don’t invite the single friend to a party. And make sure there are at least two other single people so that the single friend doesn’t feel left out when everyone starts kissing when the clock strikes. Only, the two other single people invited hit it off and the single friend remains just that - single.”

Merlin nodded.

“It’s like my being single has become a burden to them,” the man continued. “Which it isn’t. I choose to be single. It’s safer that way. But nooooo, Arthur cannot be single. He can’t be happy being single, because we weren’t happy being single, so he must have someone. Especially when we go to brunch because brunch is a couple’s thing and it’s weird having a single friend have brunch with us, but we must invite him or else he’d never leave his flat, which is fine with me because that’s what Netflix is for, you know?”

Even though his eyes were still a little glassy, Merlin could see the hopelessness that shadowed them. 

Merlin understood Arthur’s predicament in a way that made his heart clench. He knew exactly how it felt to be the single person in the crowd of couples. He knew what it was like to constantly be on the receiving end of his friend’s well-intentioned match ups. 

Before Merlin could open his mouth to respond, Arthur’s phone chimed.

“That would be my ride,” Arthur muttered and with great effort, rose to his feet and ambled towards the door. Merlin followed him.

Arthur opened the door and at the last moment, turned to look at Merlin.

“You’re all right, you know that?”

With that, Arthur left.

* * *

New Years Day was bright and bitterly cold. 

Merlin tried to stay in bed as long as he could, but after a while, his legs began to cramp and he dragged himself to the bathroom and then to the kitchen. He made a fresh pot of coffee and checked the messages on his phone. 

Gwaine had sent him numerous voice notes, getting progressively less coherent the later he sent them. Merlin smiled at the thought of Gwaine’s hangover that morning.

There was a rapid knock on his door.

“What time do you call this?” He muttered to himself as he went to answer the door. “I’m not making you bacon, you lazy bastard,” Merlin said as he swung his door open, expecting Gwaine.

“Arthur?”

Arthur stood on Merlin’s doorstep with drooping shoulders and a contrite smile on his lips.

“Oh good. I thought I was going to have to knock on every door on this floor.”

“What are you doing here?”

Arthur held out a package for Merlin. “I’ve come to apologise. When I woke up this morning, I had that horrible drunk flashback thing and realised what I had done. So, here. Coffee. To say thank you.”

Merlin took the packet of coffee, glancing at the label - Jamaican Blue Mountain - and gaped at Arthur like a fish.

“Right,” Arthur was still wearing the clothes from last night. “Time for me to do my walk of shame. Goodbye, Merlin.”

Arthur turned to leave when Merlin’s brain finally kicked in.

“Wait.”

Arthur paused.

“You didn’t have to - these are -” Merlin took a deep breath. “I’ve just put on a pot. Would you - I mean - coffee?”

Arthur turned to him with a smile. “That would be nice. Thank you.”

* * *

When the fireworks lit up the sky and Big Ben rang in the following year, Merlin and Arthur didn’t even realise it, having started their New Year’s Eve kiss a lot earlier.


End file.
